tshuva: nostalgia

tshuva: nostalgia

 

This is the season of tshuva. The word is usually translated as repentance but it is clearly related to the word meaning return.  Tshuva implies that a better state was abandoned for an inferior one.  Things used to be better ( before automobiles, telephones and Internet divrei torah).  Tshuvah - I want to return to a prior state of innocence, before I was distracted by the power of human in(ter)vention.

 

The romanticized vision of the past that the 10 days of Tshuva evokes in me is very long and deep.  It stretches from the time before Adam and Eve took the fatal, intoxicating, permissive fruit  (before Woodstock) to the pre-Twitter, pre -RSS, pre -Google era of days of delay before questionable, essential information became available.

 

Part of tshuvah is realizing that, in the future I will look back at this time.  Thus, one who denies olam haba, the ultimate future, loses olam haba because she cannot do tshuvah.  

 

Don't rely on miracles - do tshuva.

Ha'azinu: change

 Ha'azinu: change

 

This week's parsha, Haazinu is read from the week before Rosh Hashana until Shabath Tshuva.

 

Rosh Hashana is the time of change.  The word shana is related to shona: change.  Rosh Hashana is the transition from the old year to the new, an opportunity for  personal change, a time when change will come to the world regardless of our desires.

 

Moshe introduces the song of Haazinu as the basis for a future: " I told you so!"  Moshe says that, "I know their nature": they will be successful;  they will rebel against  Gd; consequently they will be punished, they will suffer terribly and ultimately, they will be redeemed.  Is this the range of change?  Is there a predicted cycle that cannot vary? Is it only the pace that  can be altered? 

 

 Is this part of the nature of unity, which is challenged by the idea of shana ( sheni)?  The concept of change is inherent in the idea of a year. Change implies limit, the existence of some thing other from which the change arose and something else to which the change goes. Change is the antithesis of unity, and thus the word shana is related to sheni: second  ( hence third, fourth, etc.) The  recognition of an alternative leads to the pursuit  of the better alternative.  The recognition of unity ( Gd) points to making the best choice. There is a force that can break the cycle ... and always does.

 

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nitzavim vayelech: strength and preparation

nizavim vayelech: strength and preparation

 

These parshiot come as the days of awe dawn, As dawn ascomes later and we awake in the dark ( the home of the mysteries ( nistaroth)) and  watch the visible ( nigloth) emerge.The process calls for courage: Chazak - get hold of yourself; Amatz - make strong preparations. 

 

3words that end in matz:

komatz: a fist - a strong preparation

Chomaitz: leavening: a prepation that involves alcohol ( a strong substance)

 

Look at the final tzadi: it is a tree ( like eitz): the tree life or the tree of opinion ( eitz hadas) that our mother ( aym) ate from

prior years:

 

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AXfHEywWA3ieZDRobXc5N18yNjJneHp0bXJkNg&hl=en

 

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AXfHEywWA3ieZDRobXc5N18xNDRmOGp2NnY&hl=en 

 

 

 

Ki Thisa:

Ki Thisa: Acknowledgment

 

The Vidui maaser: the acknowledgement of having arrived.  It is much more than a thank-you.  It is an acceptance of the Lordship of Gd and Gd's rule over the land.

The associated curse is all about the land.  Exile is the cause of the troubles and return to the land is the salvation. Zionism is born.

 

The parsha  emphasizes the way that other nations view Israel. The images of  Jews lending ( at interest) to the nations and the Jew as a disgusted symbol become Incorporated in the traditions of gentile peoples ( and Jews).  The acceptance of the Hebrew Bible by Christians gives a textual basis to the image and becomes a self fulfilling prophecy...

 

Now that the State of Israel is established our image changes and perhaps that image depends on whether we bring our first fruits to the L rd and fulfill our obligation  to our brothers and sisters.